Enlisting with the Royal Hussars (Part 2 of 2)

Heroes Remember

Enlisting with the Royal Hussars (Part 2 of 2)

Transcript

Well the air force would not take me, first of all they said I did not weigh enough. So I gained the necessary weight to satisfy them on that point. Not that I was sensational in any way but I did my best. Otherwise they could see that I was sincerely wishing to serve in that branch to the service. I felt that by serving in the air force, I could further my interests in aeronautical engineering and so on and so forth. Oh I didn’t, I did not get into the air force. Interviewer: Oh didn’t you? No, I got impatient with it, how long it took. So I tried, aimed at the navy next. And that was too slow going too in Montreal at that time. So I decided to make it the army. And as regards to the part of the army, I chose reconnaissance, scouting. Well I enlisted in the 17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars in Montreal. I was fortunate inasmuch as I enlisted in reconnaissance and managed to get through to World War II with reconnaissance work.

Description

Mr. Heward describes his experience of trying to enlist in the air force and the navy. Eventually, he joined the army with the 17th Duke of York Royal Canadian Hussars.

Richard Heward

Mr. Heward was born on March 18, 1922 in Montréal, Québec. As a child he dreamed of becoming a pilot or navigator. Upon graduation from high school, he had hoped to go to England to study aeronautical engineering, but the outbreak of war changed those plans. Mr. Heward tried to join the air force, but his impatience with the long delays led him to join the army. After the D-Day invasion, he was transferred to the Norwegian Army to survey the heavy water plant in Norway that had been used by the Germans to assist in their nuclear research.

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